Crime Family Dealt a Blow, Police Say

By WILLIAM K. RASHBAUM

Oct. 20, 2000

With arrests in three states early yesterday, federal
authorities and the police announced a racketeering indictment that they said
would devastate the DeCavalcante crime family and break its grip on businesses
and labor unions in New York and New Jersey.

The New Jersey-based DeCavalcante mob, while smaller than the
five New York crime families, helped introduce some of the mob's earliest stock
schemes. And despite its reputation as a second-class crime family, some
members seem to have high opinions of themselves. Last year, several were
overheard on F.B.I. wiretaps in a related case speculating that they were the
models for the mobsters depicted on the television series "The
Sopranos."

Federal authorities yesterday called the DeCavalcante family
one of the mob's most ruthless and paranoid crime groups, citing "extreme
and hair-trigger violence."

Two men whom prosecutors identified as acting bosses on a
three-man ruling panel — men who they said helped Mr. Riggi, 75, run the
family's operations from his prison cell — were among those charged, as
were the family's consigliere — or counselor — along with two
captains and three soldiers.

The family's founder, Sam DeCavalcante, known as Sam the
Plumber, long active in a wide range of legitimate businesses including the
record industry, was an early and active leader in sophisticated labor
racketeering schemes, the authorities say. In recent years the family forged
closer ties with New York City's mob clans, particularly the Gambino family,
which led some to see the DeCavalcante family as something of a subsidiary of
the Gambinos.

But there is no question among law enforcement officials
that the family has been a leader in the mob's incursion onto Wall Street. One
of the reputed captains charged in the indictment unsealed yesterday —
which focuses on both the family's New Jersey and New York operations —
was Philip Abramo, 55, who runs a New York crew and was called "one of the
mob's best scholars in securities fraud" by a Federal Bureau of Investigation
official.

Mary Jo White, the United States attorney for the Southern
District of New York, said that the indictment, along with a case last year
that charged a third acting boss and two captains, left the entire leadership
of the family facing lengthy prison terms if convicted.

"The expectation is that this prosecution will
effectively dismantle the DeCavalcante crime family and essentially eliminate
its criminal grip on business and labor unions in both New Jersey and New
York," she said at a news conference where she was joined by Barry W.
Mawn, who heads the F.B.I.'s New York office, and the first deputy police
commissioner, Joseph P. Dunne.

Mr. Dunne added, "This investigation effectively wipes
out the C.E.O. and board of directors of the DeCavalcante crime family."

Mr. Mawn said that the F.B.I. agents and police detectives
who worked on the investigation had been able to penetrate "to the highest
levels of the DeCavalcante family," noting that the case had been helped
by the aide of several cooperating witnesses.

He suggested that some of the information developed would
lead to charges against members of other mob families who did business with the
DeCavalcantes.

"The fallout will not be limited to this one
family," he said.

Among the five murders in the indictment was the 1989
killing of Frederick Weiss, a recycling executive and former city editor of the
Staten Island Advance. Prosecutors said the killing had been committed at the
request of John Gotti, the Gambino family boss, who feared that Mr. Weiss was
cooperating with the F.B.I. in a case focusing on a Gambino-tied waste company.
Mr. Riggi, Mr. Abramo and Frank Scarabino, 44, of Staten Island, an associate
in the family who prosecutors said goes by the name Franky the Beast, were
charged in the slaying.

Mr. Riggi, Mr. Abramo and two other men, the reputed
consigliere, Stephano Vitabile, 64, and Louis Consalvo, 43, a reputed soldier,
also were charged in the 1991 slaying of Mr. Riggi's daughter-in-law's father.
Mr. Vitabile, who was born in Sicily in the town of Ribera, to which many in
the DeCavalcante family trace their roots, was charged in the 1992 killing of
John D'Amato, a man whom Mr. Gotti had sought to install as the DeCavalcante
boss after Mr. Riggi was sentenced to prison in 1990.

The indictment also charged Mr. Abramo with conspiracy to
commit securities fraud, saying he and Mr. Consalvo sold 8,000 shares of stock
in a company called SC&T International.

"The DeCavalcante family plotted — and committed
— killings on the streets of New York," Mr. Mawn said, "while
at the same time attempting to make a killing on Wall Street."

Late yesterday, seven of the defendants were arraigned in
United States District Court in Manhattan before Magistrate Judge Frank S.
Maas, who held six of the men pending bail hearings next week, according to
John M. Hillebrecht, an assistant United States attorney in the case. In
addition to Mr. Consalvo, Mr. Vitabile and Mr. Scarabino, those defendants were
Girolamo Palermo, 62, a reputed acting boss; Frank D'Amato, 54, identified as
an associate; and Gregory Rago, 41, a reputed soldier.

The seventh, Charles Majuri, 59, also a reputed acting boss,
was held in $1 million bail and under house arrest with an electronic
monitoring bracelet after Mr. Hillebrecht argued that he posed a risk to the
cooperating witnesses and their families.

The eighth defendant, Bernard NiCastro, 66, a reputed associate,
was arrested in Florida and was held there pending a hearing next week. Mr.
Riggi is serving a federal prison term and is scheduled to be released in 2002;
Mr. Abramo is being held without bail in connection with a 1999 federal
securities fraud indictment in Florida. Another defendant, Francesco Polizzi,
65, a reputed captain, was too ill to be arraigned, and Anthony Mannarino, 55, a
reputed soldier known as Anthony Marshmallow, is still at large.

Mr. Hillebrecht also said at the hearing that one of the
eight murder conspiracies charged in the indictment had been planned in an
effort to kill a reputed mobster. Crime family members had concluded, based on
information that they had obtained from a leak in law enforcement, that the
intended victim was cooperating with the authorities. Mr. Hillebrecht provided
no further details.

The indictment also seeks the forfeiture of approximately
$20 million, which it says represents the proceeds of the racketeering crimes,
including the homes of the defendants as substitute assets.